{"id":18968,"date":"2009-06-02T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T02:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=18968"},"modified":"2020-01-23T21:25:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T03:25:51","slug":"are-there-such-things-as-mamzers-good-and-bad-seeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-such-things-as-mamzers-good-and-bad-seeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Are there such things as “mamzers” — good and bad seeds?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

I am confused about good seeds and bad seeds and the children produced from the joining of good and bad seed; called “mamzers.” Could you give me some help, please? If there are children, they are supposed to be void — neither good or bad. Would I be considered one for my father was an adulterer with a heavy hand and cruel voice and my mom was a virgin who never loved or even looked at another man, so wouldn’t that make him a bad seed and her a good seed? So where does this leave me? I was taught all children were good and pure in God’s eyes until they proved Him wrong.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

“Mamzers” is a product of Jewish thinking — not biblical teaching. Under modern-day Jewish law, a person who was born from an adulterous relationship or from incest is considered a mamzer. The status is inherited. Thus children of a mamzer are also mamzer. Children born because of fornication or to people of two different religions are not considered to be a mamzer. Also, the mamzer status is only applied to Jews. Gentile relationships of any sort do not produce mamzers according to Jewish thinking.<\/p>\n

In the Jewish faith, the mamzer status does not affect their role in the Jewish religion or in family status. The only restriction placed on them is that a mamzer and non-mamzer are not allowed to marry. A mamzer is only permitted to marry another mamzer or a proselyte to the Jewish religion. [See: Mamzer, Wikipedia<\/a>]. To complicate things further, many Jews find the laws unwieldy and unenforceable. They have taken to not asking about the mamzer status and thus are not enforcing the requirements.<\/p>\n

All of this legal craziness is based on a corrupted view of: “One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 23:2). There was a list of seven nations that God forbade the Israelites from intermarrying (Deuteronomy 7:1-4). Such marriages would be illegitimate (i.e. “illegal”). It had nothing to do with children from adultery or incest. Children who had parents from one of the seven forbidden nations were not allowed to become Israelites. See “Mixed Marriages<\/a>” for details about what the Bible did teach.<\/p>\n

What you understand is the correct biblical view. All children are innocent until they reach the age when they understand the difference between good and evil (Deuteronomy 1:39). Whether a person is good or bad is based on that individual’s choices (Ezekiel 18:20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: I am confused about good seeds and bad seeds and the children produced from the joining of good and bad seed; called “mamzers.” Could you give me some help, please? If there are children, they are supposed to be void — neither good or bad. Would I be considered one for my father was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,110,534,646],"class_list":["post-18968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-children","tag-incest","tag-judaism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13701,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-undo-the-bad-parenting-we-did-in-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":0},"title":"How do we undo the bad parenting we did in the past?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My 10-year-old son has had a hard past. We, his parents, fought the first seven years of marriage; however, now we are in the process of planting new godly seeds into him. But now we are having to deal with the seeds of disobedience, disrespect, and complaining. We want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21719,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-mustard-seed-the-smallest-of-all-seeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":1},"title":"Is the mustard seed the smallest of all seeds?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a Bible question, sir. In Matthew 13:31-32 and in Mark 4:30-32, does Jesus say that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds? I have read that the orchid seed is the smallest seed. I'm a little confused. Can you please tell me what Jesus meant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/mustard-seeds.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62873,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-seed-still-in-the-barn\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":2},"title":"Is the Seed Still in the Barn?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Haggai 2:10-19 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the people returned from captivity, work began in rebuilding Israel. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The people quickly laid the foundation of the temple, but the work stagnated. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The people were distracted with rebuilding their own homes and efforts to produce a living. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over time they became apathetic. For 16\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20121,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-create-humans-if-god-knew-most-would-live-sinfully\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":3},"title":"Why create humans if God knew most would live sinfully?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So, God controls everything that will ultimately happen, but not the choices we make in order to get to that final event, correct? I'm almost positive that that's what\u00a0all of those articles\u00a0were pointing to. So then, does that mean that He meant for humans to ultimately be sentenced to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-incorrectly-teach-the-parable-of-the-yeast\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":4},"title":"Did I incorrectly teach the parable of the yeast?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffrey. I led a study during our Mid-Week Service about the Parable of the Yeast. I made a disclaimer in my lesson that even though the majority of the usage of the word \"yeast\" in the Bible carries a negative connotation but the way Jesus used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-end-of-the-age-refer-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":18968,"position":5},"title":"What does “end of the age” refer to?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am curious to know what you say the \"end of the age\" refers to? Does it refer to the end of the world or to a specific age? I ask this in relation to what you said about it in Matthew 28. I think some people (Full Preterists\/Hyper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}